“Our enemies are innovative and resourceful, and so are we. They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we.” - George W. Bush

Friday, November 08, 2013

Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu warned the six world powers on Thursday to give up their present approach in negotiations with Tehran, which diplomats of both Iran and the six world powers say, is much likely to end in an agreement soon

CHECK OUT THE LEAD IN TO THIS ISRAELI REPORT:VOA - AMMAN — U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry is going to Geneva Friday to meet with Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif on the sidelines of talks over Iran's nuclear program. The surprise meeting comes amid reported progress on limiting Iran's uranium enrichment in exchange for easing some of the sanctions imposed because of concerns about Tehran's atomic ambitions.

Kerry and Zarif will meet with European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton at a time when an EU spokesman says the talks about Iran's nuclear program are entering "a serious phase."

When Kerry and Zarif first met on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in September, it was the highest-level talks between the United States and Iran since the 1979 Islamic revolution, and led to a telephone call between U.S. President Barack Obama and Iranian President Hassan Rouhani.

A senior administration official traveling with Kerry says he is going to Geneva "in an effort to help narrow differences in negotiations."

A different senior U.S. official says the basic idea of those negotiations is to pause Iran's nuclear program, perhaps for six months, to provide time for talks on a longer-term agreement. In return, the official says, the international community would ease some sanctions.

Kerry is going to Switzerland from Israel, where he told President Shimon Peres Wednesday that "on Iran, our eyes are wide open."

"Our hope is that Iran will understand that this is a simple obligation: Show the world that you are pursuing a peaceful program. It’s not that hard. Lots of other nations do it. So we will remember our friends and their interests, and we will be very thoughtful and careful as we proceed," Kerry said.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu questions Iran's sincerity, saying international pressure should be increased because he says Iran is increasing its uranium enrichment. Netanyahu wants Iran to be forced to close its plutonium reactor and fully dismantle what he says is its nuclear weapons program.

"If this is achieved, I’d welcome it. I’d be very worried of any partial deals that enable Iran to maintain those capabilities but begin to reduce sanctions," Netanyahu said.

Israel says it reserves the right to strike Iran militarily to prevent it from developing an atomic bomb. Kerry repeated the long-held U.S. vow that Washington will never allow Iran to have nuclear weapons.

Iran says it has no intention of developing such weapons. But parts of its program go beyond what experts say is needed for nuclear power and research, and that it could be only months away from producing enough highly enriched uranium to build a nuclear bomb.

Zarif said last week that Iran's new government is working to dispel those concerns because "even a perception that Iran is seeking nuclear weapons is detrimental" to Iranian security.

195 comments:

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has launched a campaign on twitter to uncover “The Real Face of Iran” as the Islamic Republic enters into negotiations with world powers to resolve a dispute over its nuclear program.

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The campaign received mixed reactions from twitter followers, with some criticizing it is promoting “hate” and attempting to drag in the United States to confrontation with Iran.

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In response Netanyahu tweeted saying: “If the news from Geneva is true, this is the deal of the century for #Iran.”

I don't care if Israel nukes Iran, or Iran nukes Israel, or if Jews live in that sandy strip along the Mediterranean, or Arabs do, or both, or none, or the whole shooting match glows in the dark. Just as long as I don't have to send one thin dime, one destroyer, or one soldier to any part of it.

Teresita RedingerFri Nov 08, 08:32:00 AM ESTI don't care if Israel nukes Iran, or Iran nukes Israel, or if Jews live in that sandy strip along the Mediterranean, or Arabs do, or both, or none, or the whole shooting match glows in the dark. Just as long as I don't have to send one thin dime, one destroyer, or one soldier to any part of it.

No, but there are a lot of people led around by their nose by those scribblings of Bronze Age goatherds, I pour over them to understand how the thing came to be. The rise of Mormonism provides a more modern example of the phenomenon.

Israel's 'equality under law' doesn't apply to PalestiniansIsrael's pretention to be a country with a just legal system appears ridiculous in the face of the other justice system that applies to juveniles that are not Palestinian.

Israel, a secular and socialist state that was built upon ...... the Three Pillars of Apartheid

The first pillar “derives from Israeli laws and policies that establish Jewish identity for purposes of law and afford a preferential legal status and material benefits to Jews over non-Jews.”

The second pillar is reflected in“Israel’s ‘grand’ policy to fragment the OPT [and] ...... ensure that Palestinians remain confined to the reserves designated for them ...... while Israeli Jews are prohibited from entering those reserves but enjoy freedom of movement...... throughout the rest of the Palestinian territory.

This policy is evidenced by Israel’s extensive appropriation of Palestinian land, which continues to shrink the territorial space available to Palestinians; the hermetic closure and isolation of the Gaza Strip from the rest of the OPT; the deliberate severing of East Jerusalem from the rest of the West Bank;

and the appropriation and construction policies serving to carve up the West Bank ...... into an intricate and well-serviced network of connected settlements for Jewish-Israelis ...... and an archipelago of besieged and non-contiguous enclaves for Palestinians.”

The third pillar is“Israel’s invocation of ‘security’ to validate sweeping restrictions on Palestinian freedom of ...... opinion, expression, assembly, association and movement [to] mask a true underlying intent ...... to suppress dissent to its system of domination and thereby maintain control over Palestinians as a group.”

The Israeli are terrorists, always have been.Israel was founded on terroris sustained by it.

Home Demolitions: By the Numbers

Since 1967, Israel has destroyed approximately 27,000 Palestinian structures in the occupied territories (the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and Gaza Strip), including more than 24,000 homes, according to ICAHD.Since the renewal of negotiations in August 2013, Israel has destroyed approximately 25 Palestinian homes, in addition to dozens of other structures, leaving approximately 200 people homeless.

According to the UN, between January and September 2013, 862 Palestinians were displaced by Israeli demolitions, compared to 886 (including 468 children) in all of 2012.

In 2012, a total of 600 Palestinian structures were demolished by Israel in the occupied territories, including at least 189 homes, according to ICAHD. This figure doesn’t include “self-demolitions” whereby Palestinians destroy their own homes rather than have Israel do it and charge them an additional fine.

One Bedouin village, Al-Araqib, in the Negev desert in the south of Israel, has been destroyed more than 50 times by Israel since July 2010.

Between 1993 and 2000, when the Oslo Accords were being negotiated between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization, Israel destroyed almost 1700 Palestinian homes in the occupied territories.

Immediately following Israel’s occupation of the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and Gaza in 1967, approximately 6000 Palestinian homes were demolished, including four entire villages in the Latrun area, along with dozens of homes in the Mughrabi Quarter of Jerusalem’s Old City, which were destroyed to make way for a plaza for the Western Wall. In 1971, between 2000 and 6000 Palestinian homes were destroyed in Gaza in an effort to pacify the newly occupied territory.

During Israel’s creation (1948-49), Zionist and then Israeli forces expelled approximately 750,000 Palestinian Arabs from their ancestral lands in order to create a Jewish majority state of Israel. In the process, more than 400 Palestinian population centers were systematically destroyed, including thousands of homes, businesses, and houses of worship.

The wars of Israel have been defensive wars. But you already knew that.

The better question is how many times have the Palestinians, Egypt, some folks in Lebanon, etc attacked Israel.

The Iranians had a non invasion type Shah for most of that time, under our tutelage, would that he were still around.

Since the Shah they haven't had the means, and still don't and won't, either. Except for nuclear weapons they won't have the means to do much except terror. With nuclear weapons they won't be doing much 'invading' of Israel either for the obvious reasons. That is not the danger.

The danger lies in nuclear weapons in the hands of madmen, suicide cultists.

But you already know all this, Rear End.

What it really come down to is you simply don't give a damn about much of anything, rat PA.

Saudi Arabia has invested in Pakistani nuclear weapons projects, and believes it could obtain atomic bombs at will, a variety of sources have told BBC Newsnight.

Saudi nuclear weapons 'on order' from Pakistan

While the kingdom's quest has often been set in the context of countering Iran's atomic programme, it is now possible that the Saudis might be able to deploy such devices more quickly than the Islamic republic.

Earlier this year, a senior Nato decision maker told me that he had seen intelligence reporting that nuclear weapons made in Pakistan on behalf of Saudi Arabia are now sitting ready for delivery. ...

"I do think that the Saudis believe that they have some understanding with Pakistan that, in extremis, they would have claim to acquire nuclear weapons from Pakistan."

The story of Saudi Arabia's project - including the acquisition of missiles capable of delivering nuclear warheads over long ranges - goes back decades.

In the late 1980s they secretly bought dozens of CSS-2 ballistic missiles from China.

These rockets, considered by many experts too inaccurate for use as conventional weapons, were deployed 20 years ago.

This summer experts at defence publishers Jane's reported the completion of a new Saudi CSS-2 base with missile launch rails aligned with Israel and Iran.

It has also been clear for many years that Saudi Arabia has given generous financial assistance to Pakistan's defence sector, including, western experts allege, to its missile and nuclear labs.

Visits by the then Saudi defence minister Prince Sultan bin Abdulaziz al Saud to the Pakistani nuclear research centre in 1999 and 2002 underlined the closeness of the defence relationship.

If there is a 'deal' with Iran we will be getting the short end of it if we get any end at all. It will be a farce. Given our currently sitting President,it will be a farce. A tragic farce. It will be on the order of the 'deal' we all just got from the same President - 'your can keep your insurance - you can keep your doctor - your costs will go down' - that kind of deal.

It will be a disaster finally for Israel, the USA, the West, the whole world.

Christian Science MonitorDid man form from earth? New research suggests early life began in wet clay.Recent research shows that clay provided the perfect environment for early biochemical reactions.

By Amelia Pak-Harvey / November 6, 2013

Children play with Play-Doh, a clay-like substance. New research suggests that early life might have began in wet clay (not exactly Play-Doh).

A few of the world's religions have a simple answer to mankind's origin: clay. Now science might actually back this up.

Related stories Are you scientifically literate? Take our quizAre you scientifically literate? Take our quizDid life on Earth come from a comet?Intelligent space dinosaurs: How worried should we be?New research from Cornell University suggests that life could have started in wet, wet clay. The study suggests that clay might have provided the perfect protective environment for life to materialize.

Mystery surrounds how biological molecules ever reacted with each other before they joined forces within Earth's first cell.

RECOMMENDED: Are you scientifically literate? Take our quiz

Nowadays, cell membranes provide the protective barrier to DNA and RNA as the two molecules work together to churn out proteins. But the Cornell team wanted to know how they first came together in a protective environment in the first place, before cells even existed.

The scientists created a gel with clay and ocean water – both elements that were plentiful on early Earth. When they added DNA and RNA to the mix, they found that the nucleic acids were protected from the enzymes that could destroy them.

They also found that the nucleic acids performed transcription and translation – the processes that generate proteins – remarkably well when confined within the clay.

"We surprisingly found that the coupled transcription/translation reaction...was not only preserved but was also consistently enhanced in the clay hydrogel environment," the researchers wrote.

The study finds that clay provided the protective encasing needed for the biochemical concoctions that could have led to early life.

Where DNA itself came from is another mystery altogether. NASA has found that nucleotides – the components of DNA – could have been made in space, supporting the theory that a crashing meteor might have delivered the ingredients for life.

It's the latest step in the study of life's origins, first stirred by the famous Miller-Urey experiment of 1953. That experiment, conducted at the University of Chicago, created organic material from the inorganic gases that were believed to have occupied Earth's early atmosphere.

The Cornell team also found that the gel also inhibited the activity of nuclease enzymes, which can "digest" RNA and DNA. The researchers thus suggest that the clay "selectively protected" the self-copying molecules.

"While the exact mechanisms remain to be delineated, we speculate that evolution might have already selected certain enzymes to be much more functional in the clay hydrogel environment than others," they write.

The Triangle Connecting the U.S., Israel, and American Jewry May Be Coming Apart

Certainly, too, as far as U.S.-Israel relations go, these changes are hardly likely to be catastrophic. There will be no complete flip from a specially intimate relationship to an especially horrendous one. Adjustments will be incremental and hardly pandemonic in character. The special relationship of the past four to five decades has been highly anomalous, and nothing that anomalous lasts for long in human affairs.

But many American Jews, who read history in very broad and emotional brushstrokes, tend not to think that way. They are often “flippists,” oscillating sharply between exaltation and the darkest pessimism—which aligns with a tendency to believe that anyone who does not agree entirely with their version of Middle Eastern realities must be an enemy, whether an anti-Semite or a “self-hating” Jew. They are not so inclined, as Jews have mostly been in other places and other ages, to say, “This too shall pass.” They are instead afflicted by a “gevalt complex” and so are often to be found playing Chicken Little, claiming that the sky is falling or that it fell yesterday but you are too dense to have noticed.

There is a reason for the “gevalt complex”: That mode of thinking tells us that what amount to religious beliefs are at stake, but not the ones you may think. Since the 1967 War, if not before, non-halakhic Jews in America (and not a few halakhic ones as well) have created, mostly without realizing it or meaning to, a shallow politicized version of Judaism that has made Israel into a substitute deity and the Holocaust that deity’s liturgy. This explains the most recent Pew poll’s finding that vastly more self-identifying Jews than before feel Jewish but are not religious and don’t believe in God: Their identity ensemble has become political.

Jacob Neusner and others started warning many decades ago that this faux-Judaism is incapable of transmitting genuine Jewish memory to future generations, and they have been proven correct by all the data we now have on assimilation and intermarriage. The reasons are not hard to identify. Of God there are many mysteries, but of any and every political entity, including Israel as a real country rather than as a beatified idol, there are many misanthropies. And what healthy child wants to associate with a community seemingly obsessed with mass murder and eternal victimhood?

Israel is the main reason why the US has such a desperate situation in the ME. "A number of U.S. military officers think the Israelis already know they can’t take out the Iranians, but once the bullets start flying Israel calculates that the U.S. will join in. “All this stuff about ‘red lines’ and deadlines is just Israel’s way of trying to get us to say that when they start shooting, we’ll start shooting,” retired Admiral Bobby Ray Inman .

Israel can take care of it's self. Just don't bitch when it does. Don't rush to stop it when it finally takes matters in it's own hands. And certainly don't criticize it when it uses all the tools in it's bag to deal with the Mullahs of Iran.

War is hell.

Israel understands that it's enemies are real. Just as we all KNOW that Deuce, Rat, Rufus and Jenny would not cry a single tear if every single jew in the world tomorrow didn't wake up due to a few rounds in the back of the head.

Now we do know that if a 16 year old palestinian throws a firebomb at a Jewish woman and her kids driving on a road and that car crashes and the occupants get out and shoot and kid the said 16 year old child? Deuce, Rufus, Rat and Jenny will be decrying the fascist state of Israel.

Actually with the exception of the Iranian situation our 'position' in the ME isn't all that bad. Despite the best efforts of the President to turn over Egypt to the Muslim Brothers, Egypt is back on the right track, Syria is dysfunctional for decades, Iraq is currently no threat to anyone......things aren't all that bad

Cheer up, Jen. We are not all doomed, nor do we all deserve to be!Hardly "desperate".

The move was publicised in a statement from Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office, the Associated Press reported. Students will receive scholarships to "engage international audiences online" and combat anti-Semitism and calls to boycott Israel, it was alleged.

In 2012, a Palestinian-run blog reported similar arrangements between the National Union of Israeli Students and the Israeli government. Students would be paid $2,000 to post pro-Israel messages online for five hours a week.

According to Israeli daily newspaper Haaretz, the most recent proposition is being spearheaded by Danny Seaman, who was slammed by the media for writing anti-Muslim messages on Facebook.

Students will be organised into units at each university, with a chief co-ordinator who receives a full scholarship, three desk co-ordinators for language, graphics and research who receive lesser scholarships and students termed “activists” who will receive a “minimal scholarship”, the Independent reported.

Rear End is back to using combinations of 'f's folks. He is becoming frustrated. He statements are illogical. Can the bad 'f' word be far behind?

He is mentally unstable, has a screw loose, couple of spark plugs not firing, whatever analogy you wish - the man needs help, the aid of a counselor, some quiet white music, a compassionate female voice....

Vandal Fans - I may have misspoken and left the impression the Vandies are returning to the Big Sky next year --

Vandal football finds 'great stability' in Sun BeltPublished: March 28, 2013 FacebookTwitterGoogle PlusRedditE-mailPrintVandals Spring Practice FootballNew Idaho head coach Paul Petrino runs the running backs through drills during the Vandals’ first practice of spring camp last week. The Vandals will join the Sun Belt as a football-only member for the 2014 season, with the rest of its sports joining the Big Sky on July 1, 2014.KYLE MILLS — Lewiston TribuneRECENT HEADLINES

Idaho State Board of Education unanimously approves return to conference as football-only member.

By DAVE SOUTHORN — dsouthorn@idahostatesman.com

The Idaho Vandals will wander and wonder no more.

With the demise of their conference home, the WAC, and the ensuing decision in August to play as an independent in 2013, the Idaho football team found a new home Wednesday.

Idaho will join the Sun Belt Conference in 2014 as a football-only member, the school and league announced.

"It's something that we've been working toward for quite a long time since we announced our independent status back in August," Idaho Athletic Director Rob Spear said. "It's going to provide great stability for our football program. I'm most excited for our student-athletes. They've endured some trying times with having conference instability."

It also will be a return to an old home -Idaho played in the Sun Belt from 2001-04.

The Sun Belt also announced the additions of New Mexico State, Georgia Southern and Appalachian State. Eight teams will play in the league in 2013, and will reach the magic number of 12 in 2014, which will enable the creation of a conference championship game.

"We have to be realistic - Idaho needed a conference home … and the situation was the Sun Belt needed 12 teams," Sun Belt Commissioner Karl Benson said.

Finding a new home will give Idaho at least eight league games, and should cut down on the need for "money" games. They play at Florida State and Ole Miss this season.

Benson said the league will determine in May if it will have an eight- or nine-game conference slate in 2014.

Idaho's other sports will play in the WAC in 2013 and in the Big Sky in 2014.

With Moscow a geographic outlier in a conference whose northern-most member resides in Kentucky, schools playing in the East division will be given a subsidy to travel to Moscow or Las Cruces, N.M.

The Vandals, who will play in the West division with New Mexico State, Texas State, Arkansas State, Louisiana-Lafayette and Louisiana-Monroe, aren't concerned about travel, with the team traveling by charter.

"Traveling four times a year to the south is not an issue. … We went to Ohio, North Carolina and Louisiana twice last year,'' Spear said.

Idaho will not have to pay any fees to join the Sun Belt, which has a TV agreement with ESPN that will be renegotiated with the increase in membership. Possible exposure on TV, along with related revenue and payouts from the BCS to conferences, will help negate the loss of approximately $1 million the school projects without as many "money" games.

"They've invested a lot into their program, and have made a commitment to being an FBS member," Benson said. "The renovations of the Kibbie Dome the last two years … they're creating a much better football environment."

While there have been rumblings that Western Kentucky is considering a move to Conference USA, Idaho coach Paul Petrino is excited by the idea of joining the conference - and the fact his brother, Bobby, is Western Kentucky's coach.

"I think the Sun Belt has built itself into a real good football conference," Paul Petrino said Tuesday. "We'll probably be in different divisions, so I hope (a matchup with Bobby) is in a championship game."

Benson said the league has begun vetting prospective members in case Western Kentucky moves on. Benson also said the league hopes to add at least one, and possibly two more bowl tie-ins in addition to the New Orleans and GoDaddy.com bowls.

For Rufus - at 2 cents a share it is moving now - invest a month's worth of Budweiser, you might soon be rich - always thinking of your best --

Today’s Alert is SLTD

Hello Trader!

I like to get my alerts to you out before the market opens, but I didn’t see this one until just a few minutes ago. It is moving now, so I wanted you to see it before it gets too far away from us.

I have been following Solar 3D (SLTD) for a long time now. I like the company and the technology they are building.

Solar stocks like RSOL, HSOL, FSLR and YGE have been on fire lately. Smaller players like SLTD could be the next ones to follow as more investors find out about them.

If you look at the stock chart, you’ll see that SLTD has been building a base just under $.02 for a couple months now.

SLTD has been slowly climbing and today it finally broke through the $.02 resistance level and there are big bids behind it now.

I don’t know if SLTD has really turned the corner yet, but it is certainly worth watching especially at this cheap level.

Sometimes these low priced stocks start building momentum and can take off before you know it. That’s why I think it is better for us to watch SLTD right now and look for the best level to strike at rather than chasing it at much higher prices.

The markets are looking really overbought to me right now. I am looking for good opportunities like SLTD to fill in the gap during my trading day while I wait for the overall market to pull back and give us lower entry levels on stocks.

SLTD could turn into a gift today if you play it right. We’ll see how it goes.

>>>>t is important to remember the reasons why this particular Arab Spring phenomenon — which began as a cheerfully optimistic, largely non-violent and fervently pro-democracy uprising led mainly by teenagers — degenerated so quickly into a bloodbath of reaction, repression, counter-revolution and savagery.

It happened because the NATO countries, “led from behind” by U.S. president Barack Obama, allowed it to happen. It happened because the White House has preferred to avoid any confrontations with Moscow, Beijing, Tehran or Hezbollah. This is the Obama Doctrine. It’s all about abstention and capitulation, and just one consequence is that you can’t tell anymore who holds the United States in greater contempt: the Israelis or the Saudis, the Egyptians or the Turks.

It’s not just that there is no such thing as Syria any more. The other penny that hasn’t dropped is that there is no such thing as an America that is a force for progress in the world any more, either, at least not for the moment. History’s clock has turned backwards.<<<<

Using inexpensive materials configured and tuned to capture microwave signals, researchers at Duke University's Pratt School of Engineering have designed a power-harvesting device with efficiency similar to that of modern solar panels.

Sure. Obama's too stupid to roll out a working website to implement his signature achievement on schedule, but somehow he's smart enough to play a deep game with Palestinians and Kerry coordinating their actions. Kerry couldn't bumble his way out of a wet paper bag.

Kerry spoke, and the Palestinians, not known for being bright, reacted. the Palestinians, incoordination with Obama have been turning up the terror threat for weeks. ALL ACCORDING TO PLAN.

Sure, and when Kerry said to a reporter that all Syria had to do is get rid of their chemical weapons, and Putin and Assad called him on it, and it turned into a UN resolution, that was ALL ACCORDING TO PLAN.

"The Sydney Morning Herald reports, 'North Korea is using Russian technology to develop electromagnetic pulse weapons aimed at paralyzing military electronic equipment south of the border, according to South Korea's spy agency. The National Intelligence Service (NIS) said in a report to parliament that the North had purchased Russian electromagnetic pulse (EMP) weaponry to develop its own versions. EMP weapons are used to damage electronic equipment. At higher energy levels, an EMP can cause more widespread damage including to aircraft structures and other objects. The spy agency also said the North's leader Kim Jong-Un sees cyber attacks as an all-purpose weapon along with nuclear weapons and missiles, according to legislators briefed by the NIS.'"

Let's not forget that North Korea has also achieved nuclear fusion, developed a super drink that can cure aging and disease, and found a "unicorn lair" last year.

Reports of starving North Koreans resorting to cannibalism come amid renewed tensionsA North Korean man suffering starvation was put to death after it was learned he ate two of his children, a new report claims. While the man’s wife was away, he reportedly killed his eldest daughter and then his son after he had witnessed the murder. ‘We have meat,’ he told his wife on her return.

THE MASS-STARVATIONS OF THE 1990s. In the 1990s, widespread famine devastated North Korea, killing over 2.5 million, and perhaps upwards of 3.7 million, North Koreans, more than 10 percent of the population.3 By the end of the 1990s, the PDS could only support 6% of the nation, although 62 percent of the population relied on it.4 The 6 percent who received food through the PDS were fed only 128 grams per person per day – approximately 1 cup of food –, equivalent to some 25 percent of the internationally-recommended minimum calorie intakehttp://www.northkoreanow.org/the-crisis/mass-starvations-in-north-korea/

North Korea begs for food aid from Mongolia as starving state faces 'severe' shortageNORTH Korea can no longer feed its people and has begged for food aid from Mongolia, it emerged today.By: Charlotte MeredithPublished: Mon, April 22, 2013

For years, most notably those of the late Clinton and early Bush reigns, North Korea played the game of "We will be good if you help us." We did and they weren't. Then one day, they produced the atomic weapons they had promised they wouldn't. Now, the North Koreans don't beg. No, they rattle their sabers and demand assistance or else.

I have no doubt that Iran has and will behave much the same. There will be war. Geography will offer no safety.

Enemies Enhance the Meaning of LifeLife isn't meaningless when you have enemies!

Published on October 15, 2011 by Nathan A. Heflick, Ph.D. in The Big Questions

Decades ago, the sociologist Georg Simmel argued that nothing unites a nation, or any group of people for that matter, quite like having a common enemy. Recent research by Mark Landau (professor of psychology, University of Kansas), though not testing unity of groups, does indicate that having enemies provides some psychological benefits.

Specifically, Landau and colleagues argue that people have a basic need for coherence, or for things to make sense. Enemies provide people with this sense of coherence. If we can attribute many of the ills in our lives to our enemies, then we have a stable set of schemas and expectations. We know what to expect, even if something bad happens, and we know who to attribute it to.

Several studies support these ideas. In one study, participants who were lead to think about chaotic hazards were more likely to perceive people with different political beliefs as enemies (view them as more part of a conspiracy).

Interestingly, in another study, people who had just imagined a powerful enemy (Al-Qaeda) actually thought the world was less dangerous and chaotic.

Put differently, this research suggests that people create enemies in order to maintain a stable, coherent, clear view of the world. This is because they can attribute the negatives of the world (which are inevitable) to these enemies.

Maybe Farmer Fudd just needs Enemies to complete his own "Self", his "Id"

He has latched upon Desert Rat, accused him of vile crimes against humanity, with no proof or facts to substantiate the claims.Then he increased the size of the Enemies List, adding the host of .The Libertarian to his list of criminals that conspire against him and all humanity.

New research supports the notion that we fixate on enemies, and inflate their power, as a defense mechanism against generalized anxiety.

We have seen the enemy, and he is powerful. That’s a recurring motif of contemporary political discourse, as generalized fear mutates for many into a fixation on a ferocious foe.

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According to one school of thought, this tendency to exaggerate the strength of our adversaries serves a specific psychological function. It is less scary to place all our fears on a single, strong enemy than to accept the fact our well-being is largely based on factors beyond our control. An enemy, after all, can be defined, analyzed and perhaps even defeated.

The notion that focusing our anger on a purportedly powerful foe helps mitigate our fears was first articulated by cultural anthropologist Ernest Becker in his 1969 book Angel in Armor. It has now been confirmed in a timely paper titled "An Existential Function of Enemyship," just published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.

Breathless warnings that the Islamic Republic will soon be at the brink of nuclear capability have been made for decades. Here is a chronicle of predictions.

Israel paints Iran as Enemy No. 1: 1992

Though Israel had secretly done business with the Islamic Republic after the 1979 revolution, seeking to cultivate a Persian wedge against its local Arab enemies, the early 1990s saw a concerted effort by Tel Aviv to portray Iran as a new and existential threat.

1992: Israeli parliamentarian Benjamin Netanyahu tells his colleagues that Iran is 3 to 5 years from being able to produce a nuclear weapon – and that the threat had to be "uprooted by an international front headed by the US."

1992: Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres tells French TV that Iran was set to have nuclear warheads by 1999. "Iran is the greatest threat and greatest problem in the Middle East," Peres warned, "because it seeks the nuclear option while holding a highly dangerous stance of extreme religious militanCY."

1992: Joseph Alpher, a former official of Israel's Mossad spy agency, says "Iran has to be identified as Enemy No. 1." Iran's nascent nuclear program, he told The New York Times, "really gives Israel the jitters."

The gravity of the situation is real. Not real to the iran apologists that make excuses for every iranian action that continues to justify iran's billions of investments in the nuclear cycle (while it's people suffer and it sits on the 4th largest oil deposits in the world) Bibi knows the real deal. The buffoons here really don't understand what is at stake. Or if they did? They prove themselves to be unfeeling, psychopaths.

They want to believe Iran is just a game, a myth, a made up issue by Bibi and Israel.

Oh will there lives be changed if and when Iran goes hot...

They do not have a clue.

And if Bibi finally steps up and takes out the Iranian nuke program, incurs the wrath of the world? They will escape the knowledge of what would have been.

We have seen this in Iraq and Syria before. And the masses are too stupid to know how Israel stepped up and saved it's pathetic, ignorant asses 2 times in 30 years....

We made ready to sail the HMS Libertarian. Quirk stowed the beer coolers below. Doug hauled up the mainsail and then attached the jenny to the forestay. Allen pulled out the lines for the jenny and Deuce tied them to the sail. Doug avoids tying knots. WiO brought out the winch handle and then stowed all the sail covers and bags. We all put on our gloves while Rufus started the little boat motor, making sure we all knew it was powered with E85 made from lawn clippings. Doug cast off while Bobby Fudd gave the boat a shove from the pier to move it out of the slip. Bobby wasn't coming because he couldn't give the password to get aboard ship. The little boat motor pushed us out of the Marina and into Puget Sound. Ash and Teresita pointed out all the sights. After Doug hauled up the jenny, Rufus turned off the motor and pulled it out of the water with a bombastic announcement that wind power would be our immediate future, not combustible liquids.

West Charlotte’s 2011-12 overall proficiency rating on the old algebra, English and biology exams was 44 percent. That fell to 17.4 percent on the results released Thursday, with 11.8 percent passing the new Math I test, 17.9 percent passing biology and 24.2 percent passing English II.

Nay he makes no chants. If Iran were to join the world, quit with the terrorism, give up the nukes and the fanaticism concerning Israel and the USA, WiO I'm certain would be no more concerned about them than he is about Canada.

Skype was a little blurry like it is during any of the average of 20 typhoons that smack into the islands, but they had power during and after landfall. The news is delayed a day by the time I see it here on television. I sent some money to make up for the lost few days work. No doubt there will be hardships for the people in the path, but I'm hearing only four confirmed dead so far, not bad for the "worst storm in history".

While Palestinians have long accused Israel of assassinating Yasser Arafat they now feel there is mounting scientific evidence that proves the case.

"My opinion from the first minute was that he was killed," Abdul Salam Abuaskar, a customer in a Ramallah coffee shop, told me. "The most important thing for Arafat after his people was his health. He was in good health then suddenly he collapsed and his health deteriorated."

Another Palestinian, Rozanne Liftawi, said she now felt "more sure" that Arafat was poisoned.

"Our mission now is to figure out who helped Israel to commit this crime?" she said.

But the latest accusations being levelled at Israel are causing fresh tensions. While the Palestinians are sounding more adamant, Israel is getting more irritated at what it sees as spurious claims without, it says, "a shadow of proof".

Gosh it would have really been helpful if his wife had allowed an autopsy at the time of death, instead of calling for one many years later. Maybe she knew he was into boy butt sex and people would find evidence of HIV. Either way, the mo fo is dead.

Do you just make shit up WiO? Even if your claim of a half-life of 28 days were true that doesn't mean all evidence of Polonium would be gone it that time - just half of the radioactivity would have subsided. From what I've read the half-life of Polonium is quite a bit longer that the number you've offered.

oh, that must be the Framer 'Boobie' Fudd weighing in. At a loss of 1/2 during a period x it will never be gone. How much residue must be left for it to be detected?

re- 28 days half-life of Polonium - from wiki:

Polonium has 33 known isotopes, all of which are radioactive. They have atomic masses that range from 188 to 220 u. 210Po (half-life 138.376 days) is the most widely available. 209Po (half-life 103 years) and 208Po (half-life 2.9 years) can be made through the alpha, proton, or deuteron bombardment of lead or bismuth in a cyclotron.[4]

210Po is an alpha emitter that has a half-life of 138.4 days; it decays directly to its stable daughter isotope, 206Pb. A milligram of 210Po emits about as many alpha particles per second as 5 grams of 226Ra.[5] A few curies (1 curie equals 37 gigabecquerels, 1 Ci = 37 GBq) of 210Po emit a blue glow which is caused by excitation of surrounding air.

About one in 100,000 alpha emissions causes an excitation in the nucleus which then results in the emission of a gamma ray with a maximum energy of 803 keV.[6][7] It is the alpha particles, not the side effect of an occasional gamma ray, that results in 210Po decay. The gamma radiation level from polonium is below the normal background.

If the Palestinians had instruments sensitive enough to detect the few million atoms of Polonium left in Arafat's putrifying corpse eight years after he went on to his 72 virgins, it would be they, and not Jews, with 41% of all Nobel Prizes.

Why is Israel threatening to murder Arafat? By the Editorial Board 16 September 2003

The Israeli government of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has publicly declared its intention to murder Yasser Arafat, the popularly elected president of the Palestinian National Authority.

This announcement was not an emotional outburst by some out-of-control cabinet member. It was delivered by Israeli Deputy Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, Sharon’s closest ally and a man frequently mentioned as his likely successor. The threat was deliberate and calculated to serve definite political purposes.

The magnitude of this proposed crime deserves careful consideration. Arafat has been a major figure on the world stage for some 35 years. Whatever one thinks of his politics—and the World Socialist Web Site certainly differs with his nationalist outlook—he is unquestionably identified with the national strivings of the Palestinian people, to which he has devoted his entire adult life.

This is a man who just a decade ago was invited to the White House to sign an ill-fated peace treaty and—when it served the purposes of the major powers—was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

What is the purpose of publicly announcing plans for assassinating such a person?

The Israeli government claims that the murder of Arafat is necessary because the 74-year-old Palestinian president is an intolerable “obstacle to the process of reconciliation and peace.” This from a regime that has engaged in ceaseless provocations, from the assassination of leading Palestinians to such collective punishments as the demolition of housing and the lockdown of entire towns, as well as the bombing of crowded residential neighborhoods and the uninterrupted seizure of Palestinian land.

The complaint of the Sharon government boils down to Arafat’s having failed to function as its puppet and balking at launching a civil war against his own people.

There is, however, a deeper political logic to this depraved call for murder. The Israeli government is pursuing a definite political strategy that is aimed at scuttling the Palestinian national movement, annexing as much land in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip as possible and making the formation of a Palestinian state impossible.

It is pursuing a well-worn tactic to a qualitatively new level—staging a deliberate provocation with the intent of provoking a violent reaction that can in turn be used to justify further Israeli armed aggression and expansion.

The Sharon government shrugs off warnings that Arafat’s killing would provoke popular upheavals and even more acts of terrorism within Israel, because it welcomes such a confrontation. It sees an eruption of popular anger among the Palestinians as an opportunity to put an end to any possibility of a negotiated settlement and to realize its long-held aim of creating a “greater Israel” through the forced expulsion of millions of Palestinians from the occupied territories.

This is a regime that specializes in provocations and thrives upon violence. Sharon himself, it should be recalled, orchestrated the political campaign that led to one of his right-wing followers assassinating former Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin for signing the accord with Arafat. In September 2000, he deliberately ignited the last three years of bloodletting with his visit to the Temple Mount in a successful attempt to instigate a confrontation and make any discussion of a peaceful settlement between Israel and the Palestinians impossible.

The murder of Arafat would represent the ultimate provocation, calculated to provoke a violent response that the Israeli regime would use as a justification for a full-scale assault on the Palestinian people.

There is also an element of psychological warfare in this threat. It is designed to send a message to the Palestinian people: resistance is futile. It is meant to impress upon a population already subjected to occupation, roadblocks, constant harassment and humiliation that it is isolated, defenseless and without hope. The Israeli government is saying to its victims that there is no crime that it cannot commit against them, and no one can stop it.

This line of thinking was spelt out by the Jerusalem Post, Israel’s largest circulation English-language daily, in an editorial entitled simply “Kill Arafat,” published September 11. In language that can only be described as Hitlerian, the newspaper dismisses warnings that such an assassination will ignite upheavals throughout the occupied Palestinian territories and the entire Middle East:

“Arafat’s death at Israel’s hands would not radicalize Arab opposition to Israel; just the opposite. The current jihad against us is being fueled by the perception that Israel is blocked from taking decisive action to defend itself.... Killing Arafat, more than any other act, would demonstrate that the tool of terror is unacceptable, even against Israel, even in the name of a Palestinian state.”

It is worthwhile considering the ideology that gives rise to the Jerusalem Post’s stunning conclusion that the murder of an elected president is a means of demonstrating that “the tool of terror is unacceptable.” This language reeks of fascism and exposes the extent to which the Israeli right has absorbed the outlook of the Nazis.

Present-day Zionism and the Israeli state both justify their existence by invoking the legacy of the Nazi Holocaust against the Jews. The peculiar impact that this ideological justification has had upon the behavior and psychology of the Israeli state was noted by the Israeli historian Tom Segev, in his book The Seventh Million: the Israelis and the Holocaust:

“The assumption is that the Holocaust requires the existence of a strong Israel and that the failure of the world to save the Jewish people during the Second World War disqualifies it from reminding Israel of moral imperatives, including respect for human rights. The sense that the Holocaust was inevitable, in accordance with Zionist ideology, and the identification with the Jew as a victim are liable to lead Israelis to conclude that their existence depends solely on military power...”

The Jerusalem Post “Kill Arafat” editorial provides a particularly grotesque expression of this tendency described by Segev. It states: “The world will not help us; we must help ourselves. We must kill as many of the Hamas and Islamic Jihad leaders as possible, as quickly as possible, while minimizing collateral damage, but not letting that damage stop us. And we must kill Yasser Arafat, because the world leaves us no alternative.”

There is a murderous logic to this conception that the Holocaust was inevitable, and that the Nazis were merely an example of how the world works. Among right-wing elements of Israel’s founding generation like Sharon, is the idea that something can be learned from the crimes of the Nazis—principally, that anything is possible provided one employs sufficient violence.

These layers explicitly rejected the universalist, humanitarian, liberal as well as socialist ideals with which the Jewish people had been identified for generations, and which made them a target for the extreme right. Embracing an ideology of ethnic and religious nationalism, they found certain elements of the Nazi outlook deeply attractive.

Compounding the historic tragedy of the Holocaust, the Israeli state that claimed legitimacy as a response to the crimes of the Nazis has adopted methods that echo those of the Warsaw Ghetto and the concentration camps.

There was a very definite purpose behind the gratuitous bestiality of the Nazis. It was to demonstrate to those under occupation and to the inmates of the death camps that they were utterly helpless; that resistance was futile.

That the Israeli state uses this same approach in its attempt to demoralize and intimidate the Palestinian people is not an accident. Rather it is a cruel historical irony with which Israeli workers and youth must come to grips if they are not to become unwitting accomplices to another monstrous crime.

The criminal approach of the Sharon regime has been aided and abetted by the so-called world community. In the first place, Washington has provided all but declared support for the policy of targeted assassinations, branding any act of resistance to Israeli occupation as “terrorism” while excusing virtually every repressive measure carried out by the Israeli regime.

The response of the Bush administration to the threat to assassinate Arafat has been to publicly oppose it from the standpoint of expediency, not principle. Having relegated Arafat to the status of a non-person, Washington appears to quibble only with the timing of his murder, fearful that it will disrupt US attempts to win international support for its own illegal occupation of Iraq. Moreover, the Bush administration has itself made murder a tool of foreign policy on a level unprecedented in US history, further encouraging their Israeli client state.

Certainly, no one in Washington has gone so far as to suggest that killing the elected Palestinian leader would lead to any disruption to the billions of dollars in US aid that keep the Israeli economy and military afloat.

The United Nations, the European Union, the Arab League and similar international institutions have issued tepid protests at best in response to the assassination announcement. Governments routinely refer to the murder threat as a “serious mistake” or a “grave error,” rather than calling it by its right name: a monstrous crime.

It is a measure of the debasement of the political atmosphere internationally that such a threat is made and no international institution or government answers it by vowing to hold the Zionist state assassins responsible, subjecting Sharon or any other Israeli official to arrest and criminal prosecution the moment they set foot abroad.

The reactionary perspective of Zionism has found its finished and grotesque expression in the public proposal to murder Arafat. The Sharon regime has unleashed a bloody conflagration in the Middle East to pursue its expansionist aims. Only the emergence of a new independent political movement fighting to unite Jews and Arabs on a democratic, secular and socialist basis can stop it.

George W. Bush to Raise Money for Group That Converts Jews to Bring About Second Coming of Christhttp://www.motherjones.com/politics/2013/11/george-w-bush-jews-for-jesus-messianic-jewish-bible-institute

This has been tried before. See Luther, Martin. It has not worked. When it does not work people get angry and Jews die.

Kovacs pinned much of the blame on the openly anti-Semitic Jobbik party, which won 17 percent of the vote in 2010 elections. One of its deputies even called in parliament for a list of Jews to be drawn up for "national security reasons".

Magnificent Ronald and the Founding Fathers of al Qaeda

“These gentlemen are the moral equivalents of America’s founding fathers.” — Ronald Reagan while introducing the Mujahideen leaders to media on the White house lawns (1985). During Reagan’s 8 years in power, the CIA secretly sent billions of dollars of military aid to the mujahedeen in Afghanistan in a US-supported jihad against the Soviet Union. We repeated the insanity with ISIS against Syria.